The present invention relates to a fabric piece stacker applied to a sewing machine.
In automatic units composed, for example, of a loading station and of a sewing station, the fabric piece is automatically transferred from the loading station to the sewing station. After the fabric piece has been sewn, it is automatically unloaded from the fore part of the unit by a stacking device. When the stacking device returns to its inoperative position, a new piece is transferred to the sewing station. During the operation of the stacking device it is not possible to transfer a new fabric piece from the loading station to the sewing station because, in returning to its inoperative position, the stacking device interferes with the new fabric piece to be sewn. An automatic unit of this type, in order for it to be competitive with already existing units employed for similar works, it is necessary to obtain a high productivity. To reach the high productivity, the inoperative time of the sewing station must be reduced.
The stacking devices, known in the art, prevent a fabric piece to be sewn from being transferred from the loading station to the sewing station during the time the stacking device is returning to its inoperative position. The inoperative time of the machine is therefore high and, as a consequence, there is a reduction in the productivity of the automatic unit.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a stacker which permits loading and sewing of a piece while the stacker is in its operative phase.
The technical problem to be solved was to develop a stacker which permits loading and sewing a fabric piece while the stacker is in its operative phase.